Satellite Navigation

During the Cold War, the U.S. military sought more reliable global time and navigation systems.

The possibilities of traveling in space inspired plans to navigate from space. Innovators tried different approaches to see whether radio transmissions from orbiting satellites could be used to determine positions on Earth. They found that time from precise clocks on satellites, transmitted by radio signals, could in fact determine location. The military combined several systems into one and created the Global Positioning System—GPS.